Governmental Representation News

Wagstaff & Cartmell currently represents the State of Oregon in consumer protection litigation against Johnson & Johnson and Ethicon involving transvaginal mesh sales within the state.

Wagstaff & Cartmell currently represents the Commonwealth of Kentucky in consumer protection litigation against Johnson & Johnson and Ethicon involving transvaginal mesh sales within the state.

In 1998, the major tobacco companies reached a $206 billion global settlement with 48 states memorialized in the landmark Master Settlement Agreement (MSA). In 2008, the tobacco companies initiated an arbitration proceeding against 35 states under a provision in the MSA contending that they were entitled to a $1.1 billion adjustment to their contract payments for the year 2003. The Kansas Attorney General held a multi-step interview process and selected Wagstaff & Cartmell to serve as private counsel for Kansas in the arbitration proceeding. Wagstaff & Cartmell prepared and presented Kansas’s case to a panel of three former federal judges at an arbitration hearing in Chicago.  The tobacco companies were represented by three well-known national law firms. After the hearing but before the Panel’s decision, Kansas settled all disputes with the tobacco companies for years 2003-12, which preserved for Kansas more than $450 million of contract payments from the tobacco companies.